An internet search for the term "NPC" brings up a lot of confusing results, so let's make sure we're all on the same page before we get started here. This is not an article about the National Petroleum Council or the National Postgraduate Committee. NPC, in the gaming world, translates to Non-Player Character (or Non-Player Class), which is essentially any character in the game that is driven by artificial intelligence or simply not controlled by any player. The NPC is, however, not to be confused with enemy AI. An NPC is not your enemy, and more often than not will actually aid you in your quest.

The NPC is something that’s been around for as long as gaming has, but until the current generation, they haven’t seen much evolution. The vast majority of NPC’s in the entire history of gaming are almost nothing more than a series of signs or clues disguised to look like whatever species happens to inhabit the planet you’re exploring. A non-intelligent NPC will always be in or around the same place, and will only say a few lines of dialog relating to your current predicament.

Perhaps the most universal example of an early non-intelligent NPC is Toad in Super Mario Brothers. The first seven times you defeat the evil Bowser in that game, you find Toad, who simply says “Thank you Mario, but our Princess is in another castle.” And so as you continue with your journey, the NPC’s goal has been achieved.

Role Playing Games are a genre notorious for often overusing the NPC as a story propelling implement. Some worlds are practically littered with characters who often have no real bearing on the story at all, but have no problem at all wasting hours of your time with pointless, inane, and unrelated banter. In some games, however, speaking to a specific NPC at a certain time will trigger otherwise unattainable side-quests, and some will occasionally hold items that will help you along your quest. Sometimes when you’re not quite sure where to head next, an NPC can give useful hints for completing your objectives.

So that’s a traditional non-intelligent NPC - just there to say one or two things or briefly provide a resource and then vanish into the scenery. However, vanishing into the scenery is precisely what developers don’t want their games to do, and that’s why new and more immersive and realistic techniques are being created and implemented to take a living world full of unique personalities and make it a reality. Games like Grand Theft Auto or The Getaway thrive on the NPC to help create a feeling of a real city full of real people. In the first GTA games, pedestrians were just that - pedestrian. Boring and bland, mainly there to dive out of the way of your stolen ambulance or provide fodder for the rampage missions, they were not much more than little pixelated targets with limbs. Then along came the next generation of GTA, and with its new engine came new pedestrian interaction. If you find a hooker, pick her up and utilize her services to regain some health. By the time we got to the streets of San Andreas, the level of interactivity with the population had reached new levels. As you walk the streets in, let’s say San Fierro, you can be either insulted or complimented on the way you’re dressed or the car you’re driving. If you happen to find a drug dealer in your ‘hood, you can choose how to react to his sale attempts and dynamically effect your every encounter.